


Climb For Bronze

by stellacanta



Series: Crowe Week 2019 [3]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-25 18:21:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18580024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellacanta/pseuds/stellacanta
Summary: Crowe Week day 3 prompts:bronze&bartending auThe bronze coeurl statue in front of the bar wouldn’t have been notable if it weren’t for just one thing, it hadn’t been there that morning. She would know, she had passed by the bar owned by two of her friends on her way to work. Crowe was going to get to the bottom of this mystery. (Even if it meant she had to swallow down one of Lib’s gods-awful concoctions.)





	Climb For Bronze

There was a bronze coeurl statue in front of the bar. Now, Crowe was woman enough to admit that it was a well-made statue and very solid. Surprisingly solid for a statue that hadn’t been here yesterday, or indeed this morning when she stopped by. She could even joke about how Coeurl’s Thunder, the bar Lib and Nyx owned, had a coeurl mascot of its very own if she could get over the confusion about the bronze statue even being here in the first place. “How-“

Crowe never got to voice her question because that was when Nyx fucking Ulric (of course it would be Nyx) showed up to slap her hard enough on the back to cause her to lose her balance. When she turned around to glare at the man, he just had his usual guileless grin and nodded towards the door. “You’re holding up the crowd, Crowe.”

She snorted. “Crowd?” She looked around for the make-believe crowd Nyx had mentioned. To her lack of surprise, she found no one else on the sidewalk outside the bar. “What crowd? Hardly anyone shows up at this place.”

“Well, I’m sure there’d be more people if you weren’t blocking the doorway sweetie.” Crowe stared blankly at Nyx who had his usual polite smile mask on for a full ten seconds before she huffed and stormed into the bar.

“Lib, there’s a fucking bronze coeurl statue outside the bar, and you’re going to tell me how it got there or I will burn this place down.”

Nyx rolled his eyes as she hopped onto one of the high chairs by the bar in the back. “Don’t burn down Lib’s baby, Crowe, you won’t get any more friend discounts on an account of there being no _bar_ for you to drink at.”

“Oh, fuck you too Nyx,” she spat at the man who simply disappeared through the employee’s only door and reappeared moments later behind the bar. “I’ll just go up to the bar up the road from here. Their drinks are better, _and_ they have ladies only nights.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Complete with discounts for best dressed.”

“What was this about burning down the bar and getting your drinks from the lesbians up the street?” Lib walked into view from somewhere out back and slid a plate of kebabs and dried jujubes towards the pair. Nyx grabbed a kebab off the plate and Crowe grabbed a handful of the jujubes.

“The lesbians make better drinks than you do,” Crowe said with a shit-eating grin before she popped one of the jujubes into her mouth.

Lib grunted as he began to mix drinks for the three. “Like hell they do, you’re just saying that to rile me up.” He placed a glass filled with something in a vibrant orange in front of her. “Here. Try this and tell me it’s shit.”

Crowe took a sip and grimaced. “It is shit, Lib, you couldn’t mix drinks to save your dying mother’s life.” Nyx roared in laughter and Lib just rolled his eyes and headed out towards the back. “Just stay back there and let Nyx take care of the drinks, he actually knows what he’s doing.”

“Aww, Crowe. Did you just compliment me on my drink mixing skills? That’s so sweet.” Nyx batted his eyelashes at her because he was an asshole like that. “Are my drinks better than the lesbians in the bar up the street?”

Crowe gestured towards one of the bottles in front of Nyx. “On second thought, just let me mix my own damn drinks.”

“Have you finally decided to join us as a bartender,” Lib asked when he reappeared again and saw her pouring various things into a shaker.

She shot him a toothy grin. “Not on your life, Lib. I’m just here as security if you need it.” She ignored the way that Nyx shook his head and began to vigorously shake the mix. “Now, I feel like there’s a story behind that bronze statue you got out front.” Crowe nodded towards the door. “Want to tell me how that got there and maybe I’ll let myself be convinced to help Nyx out at the bar for a few hours?” Crowe mentally counted off a few more seconds before she poured her concoction into an empty glass Nyx had handed her.

Nyx turned to give Lib his best puppy eyes as the man sighed and placed a hand on his forehead. “I guess I have no choice then, huh?” Nyx cheered as Lib rested his arms on the counter in an attempt to get comfortable. “Well, then, it started with a bet-“

“-doesn’t it always?” There was a smirk on her face as she took a sip of her drink. Yep, that was it. Hit the fruity-without-being-overly-sweet spot while not being cloying bittersweet like whatever Lib thought was acceptable in a mixed drink.

“Yes, well, apparently one of our mutual acquaintances is an amateur sculptor who specialized in metals, and, we might have gotten a bit drunk but-“

“-ooh,” Nyx swiftly interrupted Lib with a shit-eating grin on his face. “Ooh, no, let me tell it.” He turned towards Crowe, shit-eating grin having turned into a shit-eating _smirk_. “Anyway, Erastus, you know him guy with all those braids and that bright blue shirt he’s always wearing, anyway, he managed to get his hands on some good Galahdian whisky. You know the _good_ stuff-“

“-and we might have gone crazy trying it out,” Lib cut in as he helped himself to a kebab.

Nyx flapped a hand at him. “Yeah, yeah, speak for yourself. _I_ can hold my liquor you know.” Both Lib and Crowe began to jeer him, and he just shrugged. “You know it’s true-“

“-True?” Crowe looked at him incredulously with one eyebrow raised. “Nyx, I had to drag your drunk ass back to the apartment when we were-“

“- _anyway_ , some of us got more than a little tipsy-“

“-Nyx,” Lib roared. “You were trying to do a strip tease for the group around a light pole.” Crowe couldn’t help it. She laughed. There was _definitely_ a story there, and she was going to needle both Lib and Nyx about it until they broke down and told her.

“-Just let me finish the damn story already!” The two quieted down and Crowe gestured for him to continue. Nyx huffed. “Thank you, _anyway,_ with inhibitions thrown to the wind. A bet was made, between me and a certain mutual sculptor friend of ours.” The smirk on Nyx’s face turned positively gleeful. “He bet that he was good enough to make any kind of bronze sculpture and of course suggestions after suggestions were thrown out, but he turned them all down as being _too_ easy. So, we made him eat his words.”

“Oh?” This was getting good, she shoved the rest of the jujubes into her mouth before grabbing a kebab. “Do tell.”

“Well, _we_ bet that he should propose a challenge and that he would have to make whatever the person who passed the challenge requested. So-“

“-he challenged everyone to climb to the top of the warehouse we were in.”

A pause. “No,” Crowe breathed.

Nyx grinned. “Yes.”

“Nyx you did not-“

“-climb my ass to the top of that warehouse in twenty minutes flat and make the guy eat his words? I wasn’t the tree climbing champion back in our village in Galahd for nothing Crowe.”

A grin broke across Crowe’s face. “You made him make you a coeurl?”

Nyx nodded, a proud look spread across his face. “For our fine establishment of course. Coeurl’s Thunder needs a coeurl mascot don’t you think?” He winked at Crowe who burst into laughter. The bell above the door ran at that moment.

“Now get your ass behind here, Crowe,” Lib snapped at her as he grabbed the plate and headed back towards the kitchen. “You promised to help bartend.”

“Aye-aye, captain.” She mock saluted the older man before looking around and vaulting over the bar. Nyx gave her a high five when she landed smoothly on her feet. Bartending for a few hours in return for the most amusing story she had heard all week? A fair trade, all things given.


End file.
